Really? Who are these mythical people? I say mythical because people keep mentioning them but have never named any. Where as the network infrastructure experts in favour of the NBN all seem to be nameable.

Come on, give us a list. You imply that it’s most of the industry. It shouldn’t take long to give an impressive list of high level experts.

The beauty of the forums is you not only get a wide range of views, but you can often tell (especially when they rant) the bias of people and unlike the traditional media it’s quite easy for someone to call them on this bias.

The other good thing with forums is that you can check a person’s previous postings to gage how well they held up. Where as the traditional media & their experts are rarely held to account for previous reporting. This is not only technology, but also finance (Alan Kohler & his mates make very interesting reading 18-36mths ago)

lastly the traditional media have always had a very weak grasp on technology. Many of their so called experts are often influenced by their connections to companies in the industry (remember Gareth Powell spruiking Microsoft in the 90′s?), The gadget Guy spruiking .

But the other forums are a wealth of information. I regularly find fantastic information on every conceivable technology topic. If I google for a problem, if a whirlpool post comes up that is my first stop – it has the answer 99% of the time.

It wasn’t written by Renai :)

It can be discouraging to even bother trying when you see ‘part #’ in the title

“What would be awesome is if someone posted a one-page summary every now and then. Any takers?”

I might give it a shot, but I think there are many others that would be more suited to this than I.

Not necessarily. My opinion of the Whirlpool forums is generally negative. I really dont have many nice things to say about the place even though most of the posts agree with my opinion.

These days I only look at it weekly. As the article says, the forum arguments are broadly circular so there is little to be gained from constant lurking but it’s useful to help keep abreast of recent developments and to help me formulate my own opinion… which is where our traditional news organisations are failing us.

I have no issue with journalists offering up their opinions in clearly defined ‘this is our opinion’ sections, however it seems that many publications are unable to provide raw information in any artical without including superlatives. I’d love to see a ban on the use of the word “slams” in headlines for example. It’s an emotive and combative term that predisposes the reader before they’ve even started gathering the ‘facts’ presented in the article.

Anyway, back on topic, my opinion of the Whirlpool forums is generally positive… but is that because most of the posts agree with my opinion?

Starting near the end makes sense because the argument tends to go round and round in circles anyway. But then you might miss some of the context and I usually find myself going backwards anyway to find out what people are referring to.

What would be awesome is if someone posted a one-page summary every now and then. Any takers?

I like the discussions here better, because the articles give you a nice jumping point to begin the conversation, and it usually takes a day or before the conversation starts going in circles (by which time, there’s a nice fresh one on the front page). Renai’s well-written and thoughtful articles help, too :)